ISI 2010-10. Agave victoria-reginae ‘Himesanoyuki’

This is a choice miniature selection of one of the most ornamental of agave species, prized for its spherical rosettes of leaves ornamented with white lines that appear to be painted onto the otherwise uniformly green surface. Originally introduced as ISI 92-30, one has slowly grown into an exceptionally attractive specimen in our Desert Garden Conservatory. When first offered, it was stated that it had four-inch wide rosettes. It has since proven to top out at about twice that size under our conditions—still an easily handled and displayed size. Characteristic of the species is the tendency to offset when juvenile until a solitary rosette exerts its apical dominance over any incipient offsets. On the other hand, with ample watering and fertilizing, one may never achieve a single, show-worthy specimen unless one consciously removes offsets that detract from the beauty of a single spherical rosette. This is exactly what we have done over the intervening years to produce a crop of solitary rosettes large enough (about half their ultimate diameter) to inhibit excessive clumping but with a long show-worthy life ahead of them. HBG 71208, $15.